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By sweet briar and tangled vetch
Lay the body of gentle Mary
The sun crept by the rivers edge
Gentle Mary with a favor to fetch


cho: :Lay down in the grass gentle Mary
Lay your doll down by your side
Hold onto you heart while it still beats
Close your eyes by the river wide


Near peat and sharpened willow
By the hilly fields of green
She disappeared down a hollow
Never again to be seen


Uncle Fred did wait by hilly fields edge
A red fox knew the scent of death
And the wet fern of her hair did rest
So gently in the long, long grass (cho.)


To and fro paced a man in dark attire
Mrs Morton saw him changing clothes
His eyes were flames, his soul afire
The sight of him made her blood run cold


He'd left a trail like a body of Braille
For Mr. Rutherford to trace
The neighbors soon called off the search
When they came upon sweet Mary's face (cho.)


A shilling and three halfpennies
Were among the items they found
And a piece of bread placed in her open mouth
To keep her from making a sound


A wind whisked across the rivers’ veins
As the sun sank through the sky
Mr Rutherford placed the shilling on her mouth
And the halfpennies on her eyes (cho.)

Thomas Nicholson stood in the old courtroom
Sentenced to a gallows fate
He never realized his doom
A smile beamed upon his face


And so it was on Middlestone Moor
On a Thursday in late 02
Thomas Nicholson hanging by a rope
As the cold northern wind around him blew


She will never breathe again
Nor get to be a bride
The girl prune stones for her teeth
And earth stones now for her eyes


Lay down in the grass gentle Mary
Lay your doll down by your side
The heart you held no longer beating
Sleep forever by the river wide

credits

from Providence Road (Acoustic Demos), released December 20, 2019

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Peter Stone Brown Pennsylvania

Peter Stone Brown was a singer-songwriter and freelance writer. He was music editor for a Philadelphia alternative weekly, and hosted radio shows. He wrote for CounterPunch and Muddy Waters Magazine and contributed to Gadfly and Bobdylan.com. His debut album Up Against It was on the Americana Chart and featured on roots-music stations across the U.S and Europe.

Peter died on October 5th 2019.
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